Ninja of the Leaf
by Warlord1096
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto is just another ninja of Konoha, trying to survive his time in service with nothing but his guts and his kunai to back him up. It's hard when he possesses no special ability, has no legendary bloodline, and the seal on his stomach locks the nine-tailed demon and its abilities away completely. He doesn't know about that last bit, though. Highly AU.
1. Initiation 1: Squad Orphan-2

**Disclaimer: **The Naruto manga and any related franchises are properties of Masashi Kishimoto. I do not claim any ownership of the material. This is a non-profit work of fanfiction written for the sake of entertainment only. This is the only time I'll post this in this body of work.

**Preface (Update, March 2015): **This work came into being since I got tired of DBZ levels of power in a story about ninjas, and of reading the same arcs and same overarching plot again and again. The characters are all here, this is Naruto-centric, but I mean to twist the plot about, and bring back the Naruto who relied on trickery and bullheadedness to win. This is also the only time I'll be adding an author's note, because I want this to resemble an attempt at a novel as much as possible, and everything else I post will be story alone. I may clarify doubts over review, but otherwise, treat this as you would normal literature - any seeming mistakes/problems will be addressed over the course of the story, or go down as a loose thread/error. There will be no bullshit '$' or **BOLD** while speaking, chapter lengths will vary like real books, and you'll find no 'sweatdropping' or 'anime tears', and definitely no author's comments or notes beyond these 300-odd words. I won't feed you the story. You'll experience it. Updates will be slow, since life is hectic right now, but I'll also attempt to improve with every chapter, so any feedback will be appreciated. There - that's the one time I'll say it.

This way, you get my attempt at premium fanfiction, and I intend to push the boundaries when it comes to AU differences. The ninja here don't yell out techniques, kill without impunity, and are masters of deception. Will Naruto survive? Read on.

* * *

_Arc 1: Initiation_

_Prologue: Squad Orphan-2_

* * *

A raised fist. A silent command.

_Halt._

Four dark figures appeared on the tops of lantern posts and the edges of terraces, melting out of the darkness like shadowy messengers from the underworld itself. Against the backdrop of a fully waxed moon, they conducted furious conversation with nothing but handsigns.

_Arrival. Target inside. Gamma?_

A pause.

_Asleep. No hostiles in sight._

_Perfect. Set up perimeter._

Two of their number vanished immediately, moving acknowledging the command of their leader. Co-ordinating with speed born from hours spent together learning the trade of their kind, they set up viewing points at different angles from the target's house, on the lookout for the slightest deviation from their plan.

Alpha turned his attention to the final member of his squad. Electric blue eyes were fixed on him, the slight creasing of his eyebrows betraying the emotions that his facemask sought to hide.

Nervous?

A shake of the head. Alpha didn't bother to call him out on the lie.

Gear?

A thumbs up.

Move in.

Blue eyes was off in a flash, pushing himself off the railing and vaulting himself neatly through the window on the third floor. Kobayashi Kosuke slept on like all the other people in the inn, unaware that his death had just slipped into the room and was currently attached to the ceiling.

The small ninja crawled above the bed like an overgrown arachnid, carefully running his eyes over the room. The special energy that every member of his profession possessed crept through his veins and out through the tips of his fingers and toes, sticking him to the sloping roof against gravity's fruitless pull.

Reaching into the small pouch on his thigh, he pulled out a spool of dark thread. Slowly, he took his other hand off the wood, until he was hanging upside down. Blood rushed to his head, but he took his time to unroll the thread until it was hanging just above Kosuke's open mouth.

The thread shivered with the gentle breeze from the window, and the ninja spent a long moment staring at the supine figure. He thumbed a tiny vial hidden in the same pouch he'd withdrawn the thread from, playing with the cork with his thumb. His wrist twitched, inching the thread up –

There was a small rushing sound from outside, like the sound of wind through the trees. Kosuke grunted, but didn't wake up. The intruder stiffened, reminded of his fellow ninja outside.

Blue eyes blinked once before glaring back down with renewed determination. He pulled out the vial and eased the cork open, tilting the contents down its length. His hand shook ever so slightly, but he steeled himself.

Small black drops percolated down the line and dropped off the edge, landing neatly in the sleeping man's mouth. Kosuke shifted and mumbled incoherently in his sleep. His mouth opened and closed as his tongue worked inside, lapping up the liquid without knowing what it was.

Satisfied, the ninja quickly reeled the hanging thread back in, his gloves protecting him from contamination. It didn't matter, though, since he'd taken it in small doses himself until he'd become immune.

When he was done, he crept out the same way he had entered, without bothering to spare a glance for the man on the bed whose life was now numbered in minutes.

His squad fell into step behind him as they raced away from the crime scene, leaping and weaving through the shadows. They hid from every lookout even as they hurtled past watchtowers and patrols, unnoticed even as they scaled the walls above the heads of the guards.

Civilization gave way to the thick forestry of Fire Country, filled with trees standing tall and blotting out the moonlight with their thick heads of leaves. They charted a straight course through the branches, boosting themselves with chakra until they were little more than blurs. The leaves rustled and shook around them as they passed, but they were already gone when the occasional animal looked up at the sound. Blue eyes trailed slightly behind the group, his eyes not really seeing the flora in his path.

Alpha pulled them to a stop when they reached a designated clearing. The ground here was painted with invisible glyphs, called seals in their profession, which would activate and form invisible protections around them with a special sequence of hand signs and some chakra. The captain proceeded to do just that as his team went about setting up camp and getting a fire going.

When the flames were crackling merrily and the last of his tents had been set up, they convened at the center. Exchanging small looks, they reached back and pulled off their masks and bandannas as one, exposing their features to the world.

Uzumaki Naruto took a grateful breath of the cool night air, enjoying the feel of the wind against his entire face.

"You hesitated." His moment of enjoyment was cut short by Alpha's deep voice. "Gamma reported everything to me as it happened."

Naruto threw an accusing on the sole female member of their team, who had just let loose her long, dark hair and was shaking her head from side to side. Hyuuga Hotaru, who'd witnessed his moment of doubt by dint of the bloodline limit of her clan, appeared wholly unconcerned and even amused by his indignation.

"Can't have the rookie going cold on us, can we?" Beta, who went by Nishimura Toru, had rubbed him the wrong way ever since the team had taken him on from preliminary training. "How's he going to keep up if he stutters on the first kill?"

Alpha's eyes flickered to his second-in-command, but he didn't agree outright with the large boy. Instead, he fixed his gaze on Naruto, and waited silently for an explanation.

Naruto found he didn't have one. He looked back into Alpha's golden eyes, which had earned him the name of Kohaku, and hated the disappointment he found there.

Alpha had taken a special interest in him eight months into the reserve ninja camp, even pulled him from basic several times to run simulations with his team. He was the only one who didn't laugh nowadays when Naruto repeated his dream of being a kickass ninja, even after he'd washed out of the genin program and ended up with the reserves.

Right now, as he met Kohaku's expectant look with nothing but empty excuses which lodged halfway in his throat, Naruto felt like his dream was crumbling within his fist. How could he explain the horror he'd experienced, looking down at the innocent civilian's face, when it was explicitly stated in the ninja guidebook that no nin was to back down in the face of death?

"Oh, get it over with, boys," Hotaru's voice broke the silence stretching between the two of them. "You've had your fun. Just hand him the headband and welcome him to the team."

Naruto started, and Toru scowled and chucked a clod of dirt Hotaru's way. Kohaku chuckled, and the tension between the group was broken at once. Hope bubbled up within Naruto, but he forced himself not to rejoice just yet –

Metal glinted in the firelight as it flew through the air, loose cotton bands trailing in its wake. For one glorious second, the Konoha leaf symbol shone resplendently in the firelight, and then Naruto had grasped it firmly in his hand.

"We all hesitate the first time," Kohaku told him, as Naruto tied the black strips behind his head. "It's all right to feel bad." The cotton fell into a solid knot at the back of his head, and he felt the familiar weight for the first time since his disastrous jounin test. "But this is your life now. This is who we are. Born of the shadow, children of dead parents, castaways of society. Can you rise past it and stand with us?"

He held out his fist, and Naruto examined the metal plates on his knuckles for a moment. Then he grinned shakily and placed his own against it.

Kohaku nodded. "Welcome to Squad O-2, Delta."


	2. Initiation 2: Jaded

_Chapter 2: Jaded_

* * *

"The Hokage will see you now." As usual, the assistant in the lounge was doing her best to avoid meeting Naruto's eyes. "Please note the time of your entry and exit."

"Yeah, yeah," Toru waved her off loosely, "you'll know we've left when we set off the exploding tags - "

Naruto couldn't help but laugh at her outraged gasp. He may not have liked his superior very much, but even he could admit that the boy had a special talent when it came to irritating people.

"That's – it's not something you should joke about, genin-san!"

Kohaku rolled his eyes, used to Toru's antics by now. Without bothering to apologize, he led his team through the polished doors and into the circular room, taking a minute to appreciate the view of the Hokage Mountain as he entered.

"Ah, Team O-2. Back from your mission, I see." Naruto proudly adjusted his headband so the sunlight glinted off it. "And it seems it was a success. Congratulations, Genin Uzumaki. Be sure to submit your report within 72 hours. For now, I assume there were no difficulties?"

Naruto was just about to launch into an epic retelling of his first true mission, but Kohaku beat him to it. "None, sir. It was smooth going from start to finish."

"Good, good." The Hokage paused to shuffle a few papers on his desk. Pulling out the ones he needed, he handed them over to Kohaku. "I believe you'll want to register a full squad then? Turn in the paperwork to Ebisu on the third floor after you're done filling in the details. He'll hand you the supply package and measure you all for uniforms."

Kohaku nodded, running a quick eye over the documents to make sure he had everything required. Recognizing the end of the conversation, he turned to herd his team out of the room.

The Hokage coughed softly. "Uzumaki...Naruto, if you could stay behind for a moment?" If the members of O-2 were surprised, they didn't show it. Naruto shrugged, and resumed leaning next to the window as his team shuffled out.

Hotaru shut the door behind her with a smile at him, but he could only dredge up a farewell grimace. He might not have been the sharpest boy of his age, but he had a feeling he knew where this conversation would lead. He'd had it before.

"You are set, then?" Old man Hokage's voice was as flat as ever, masking all the disappointment Naruto knew was lurking just below the surface. "This is the path you have committed yourself to?"

"That's right, Hokage-sama," Naruto was careful to use the proper term of respect.

Sarutobi scowled in reply. "Don't call me that when we're alone, boy. And stop slouching over there and take a seat."

"I don't slouch," Naruto retorted, but did as he was told. The Hokage surveyed him for a moment over steepled fingers, before he sighed.

"Naruto...don't be mistaken, I'm very proud of you for how far you've come. But if you would just consider my offer –"

"Save it, gramps. I'm not going back to the academy. I worked my ass off at the Shinobi Training Centre, and I'm damned proud even if I ended up a reserve!"

"It's not like that..." the Hokage tried to say, but Naruto scoffed.

"It's exactly like that, old man! I don't care if I'm not taught by a jonin-sensei, the last one I met was a massive dick anyway!"

"Language," Sarutobi chided, even though there was no heat behind it. "You'd progress much farther in your career if you were apprenticed, my child. Who knows, you might even end up in my seat one day?"

"I'm not deserting my team," Naruto crossed his arms defiantly. "Kohaku trained me for months better than any teacher ever did, and he built the team around our combination moves. He trained us for teamwork, instead of expecting anybody else to _not_ hate me and work together without complaining!"

Sarutobi winced a bit at the not-so-subtle jab at his jounin test. "The bell test is an old tradition of Konoha, my boy. I myself took the test when I was a genin."

"It's not about that, and you know it." His voice took on a pleading tone. "Why won't you tell me, gramps? I've asked you time and again – it doesn't matter if I'm genin or hokage, for some reason everybody in the village hates me, and you never tell me why!"

"Hate is a very strong word, Naruto. The villagers hold a certain degree of animosity towards you, I won't deny it –"

"Stop using big words to confuse me!" ANBU immediately appeared out of nowhere to surround him in case he lashed out, but didn't move to attack him. "You never tell me what it is that I've done, but I'm the one who has to deal with their anger! And now that I've finally found some people who accept me, you want me to ditch them and go back to the stupid Academy instead?!"

"Naruto, calm down!" The boy had jumped out of his chair and was already at the exit of the room. Sarutobi panicked, because he was nowhere ready to end the conversation just yet.

"Like hell I will! I'm done here, gramps, and you can call me back when you're ready to tell me the truth!" With that parting shot, Naruto flung open the door and marched out of the room, making sure to slam it with all his strength as he left. A picture promptly fell off the wall and cracked with the tinkling sound of breaking glass.

"Leave it." The ANBU backed off at his command, and the Hokage wearily bent over to retrieve the fallen painting. Brushing off the chipped shards, he smiled bitterly at the sight of blonde hair and blue eyes, and wondered how he'd managed to end up alienating Minato's son so badly.

From a corner of the Hokage's office, the ANBU Hound tracked Naruto's progress away from the Tower and wondered the same thing.

* * *

"So," Toru sidled up next to him in the middle of their ninjato training classes. "What'd the geezer want with you, greenhorn?"

Naruto quietly finished his set of exercises, marvelling at the light glinting off the edges of his new sword. All reserves were given a set of equipment and full access to the Shinobi Training Centre, where retired or off-duty jounin would hold classes every day to train up their juniors.

"Nothing," he finally said, as he sheathed his sword, marking the end of the drill. He was at the beginner's lesson, but even so, the instructor had pulled him to the side and shown him a couple of basic exercises to master before he'd be ready to join the class. "Wanted to put me back in to the academy so I could get apprenticed."

Toru whistled, moving over to adjust Naruto's sword as he started the drill again. "He's being quite persistent about this. You sure you don't got a bloodline?"

"Positive," Naruto replied. "Doesn't matter either way, because I'm not deserting O-2."

"That's good. Better here than there, anyway. Six more years and I'm out, yeah?"

Naruto was so surprised that he almost dropped his weapon. The 'six and slip', as it was referred to amongst the reserves, was the shinobi code that stated that ninja who'd performed the mandatory six years of field service could apply for administration or business posts in and out of Konoha.

For many of the orphans like him and Toru, the only way for them to survive when they were young was to join the shinobi corps. Those who survived their six years and made it out considered themselves lucky. Even though they could be called up for active duty anytime, if they played their cards right and knew the right people, they could live the rest of their lives without fighting again.

Naruto supposed that was what made Konoha so dangerous. While places like Kumo and Iwa had strict military policies, in Konoha, nobody knew just who their fellow citizen was. The man who sold you oranges that morning, or planted fields in the crop, could just as easily sneak up behind you and stick you through the eye with a kunai.

Jounin apprentices, however, rarely had this option. The village invested too much in them for them to up and leave as they wanted. Neither did those who came from prominent clans, since they were slaves of tradition more than anything else. Ironically, none of these subjects were touched upon in the Academy, another one of Konoha's little dark practices that he'd become aware of only after failing his jounin test and taking up the training centre.

"Six?" Naruto questioned, surprised. The rest of O-2 had already been reserves for a year, Kohaku for 18 months – it was why he'd been allowed to form a team of his own. "Haven't you already done a year?"

Toru chuckled. "Sempai's rules. It doesn't matter who joined when, the squad leaves together."

Naruto felt a rush of warmth flow through his chest. "You – you're serious?"

"I wish I was joking, greenhorn. I'm going to be stuck duking it out for an extra year for your sake." Naruto 'slipped' and slashed the ninjato a bit too close to Toru's eye. "Oi! You stupid brat, watch what you're doing!"

Naruto grinned. "Sorry, _sempai._ I guess I have a long way to go."

"That you do." It was Naruto's turn to squawk and flail about in shock. Kohaku had managed to sneak up on him without looking. The elder genin was drenched in sweat, having just finished with his intermediate sessions. "But since you're working so industriously, Naruto, why don't I work with you for a bit?"

By the time Kohaku had finished with him, Naruto was aching all over and covered by tens of tiny, stinging cuts. Even so, he found it difficult to get over the fact that his squad would go to the lengths it had to come together as a team. It was in sharp contrast to the scarecrow bastard, who'd thrown him together with two of his worst bullies in the academy and expected him to work with them.

Naruto stumbled out of the centre with a wave to his two superiors, already thinking of the jar of medicinal cream sitting on his bathroom shelf. He ignored the hushed muttering and stares as he walked through the streets, having grown used to them over the years.

He made a stop at the convenience store to buy some cup ramen, to bolster his fading stocks. His happy debate over flavours was disturbed, though, by the appearance of another team of ninja.

"Yosh! And if I cannot find the chicken ramen within ten seconds, I will do the rest of the shopping while walking on my little finger!"

Naruto squeezed the cup in his hand so hard that it bent out of shape, breaking the seal on top. He cursed, chucking it into his cart, his decision taken out of his hand.

The ninja Rock Lee came rushing down the aisle, howling to the ceiling about the fires of youth.

"Do you mind?" Lee froze, realizing that he'd almost bowled over the short genin browsing the ramen.

"Ah, sorry, ninja-san! I will do five hundred pushups to atone –"

"Can it, Lee." Naruto was tired, aching, and not in the mood for this. "Let me get my stuff and leave."

"N- Naruto?" The two of them had been classmates together in the Academy. Naruto had even liked him, all the way up until he'd learned the intricacies of Konoha teams in the Shinobi Training Centre. Lee's spot was Naruto's by rights – his poor test scores and genjutsu skills should have placed him in the bottom of the class, on a team with the top two students. Instead, Lee, who should never even have been accepted into the Academy, was sponsored by a Konoha jounin –

"Lee! You have failed three times today! Get ready to face your punishment!" Maito Gai flickered into view, his prominent eyebrows bunching together over narrowed eyes. If there was another senior Naruto disliked as much as Hatake Kakashi, it would be the spandex clad nin. His reasoning for taking Lee, who had failed all but three of his tests, was that the boy was a hard worker.

Every orphan Naruto knew of, from himself to his peers at the centre, could claim the same thing. Being a ninja was the only way for most of them to survive, without tradesmen to apprentice to or families to learn from.

Naruto gathered his stuff and left quickly before the silence could get any more awkward. He only smiled after he left the store. He'd cleaned out the entire chicken ramen stock. It wasn't revenge, but it didn't feel too bad, either.

His home, when he finally returned to it, was as empty as it had been for his entire childhood. He'd long since given up the practice of announcing his return to his beloved houseplant, but sometimes it still irked him to return to nothing but silence and loneliness.

He shucked off his clothes and carefully placed his sword on the counter, jumping into the shower and enjoying the feel of cold water – the hot water had been out for over three years, and he'd learned to enjoy what he had.

As always, his gaze was captured by the giant poster on the wall next to his bed when he walked in to find some fresh clothes. It was a picture of a small fishing village on the coast of Fire Country, something he'd won after religiously saving up stickers from his ramen cups and mailing them to the company. He admired the oceanic vista as he pulled a t-shirt over his head, and quickly grabbed his ink and brush to work on his tags. He wasn't the best at making seals, but it was cheaper than buying them from the shops.

He looked down at the implements in his hand and then up at the sight of the vast blue body lapping at golden sands. Something about the ocean had always captured his imagination from the first moment he'd set his eyes on it – he could only imagine what the real thing would be like.

He forgot about nightmares about his first kill, forgot about his anger at the system, forgot about the myriad of cuts on his body. Instead, he imagined sunshine on his head, cold water lapping his toes, and the smell of salt in his nose.

"Six years," Naruto told himself.


	3. Initiation 3: Progress

_Chapter 3: Progress_

* * *

May passed into June and then July as the weather grew hotter and hotter and the yearly rains delayed their appearance. Konoha took on the appearance of a ghost town during the afternoon, when everybody abandoned the streets for the comfort of their homes, and ninjas began to seek out missions to the north to escape the damnable heat.

Squad O-2, for their part, had no such luck. Naruto was pretty sure invisible demons were drumming on his head, while more malicious counterparts were sucking all the energy out of his body.

"Hotaru," he croaked, "do we really need to find some cat in this heat? I'm pretty sure it's dead by now, if it's been missing for seventeen hours."

Hotaru, whose normally flowing hair was pulled up in some strange do, only threw him a withering look. Naruto decided that he hadn't been smart bringing the same point up for the third time.

The two of them were scouting the northern half of the village, having decided to split up to make their search faster. The boys had pulled straws to determine who'd get the Byakugan user, and Naruto had come out the luckiest of the three. Which was a good thing, because he would say that he'd been down on his luck for the past few months, being forced to run through simulations and face surprise attacks and practice until he passed out in the training grounds, all in the name of bringing him up to O-2's standards.

He was stronger, faster and more dangerous than he'd ever been. Under the glare of the sunlight, though, he felt like he was moving sluggishly through the haze of heat that ate at his skin and burnt the road under his feet.

Hotaru made a quick handseal and the chakra vessels around her eyes bulged out rapidly, and Naruto knew that she was using her clan's special powers. They always made the girl look rather fierce, even though it never looked unseemly on her. In fact, Naruto had come to terms with the fact that his current teammate was actually quite pretty, and her appeal was only emphasized by her ability as a ninja.

Too bad nothing could come of it. Naruto wasn't bothered by the dating game to begin with, what with a lack of funds so dire that he could barely put himself through the month, without the added expenses of a romantic life. Besides, he was at the hesitant stage of growing up – where girls were starting to hold his interest, but the apathy or even antipathy from his younger years remained within him.

Hotaru sighed, and Naruto started, thinking that he'd been caught appreciating her features.

"I found it," she said, not noticing the relief that flashed across his face. She reached up with a finger to the mic in her ear. "Target sighted in Academy Grounds, East Corner. Approach or rendezvous?"

The Academy was around the corner, at least a hundred metres away. Hotaru must have been working on her range. She waited for a reply, before replying in a quick affirmative.

"They're almost near the Main Gate," Hotaru said. That was on the other side of the village. "We've been given the go-ahead to take the damn cat on our own."

Naruto grinned in anticipation of the challenge, making his partner shake her head in amusement. Tora was nothing after a couple of bandit camp search-and-destroy missions, but she was still a wily opponent nonetheless. It'd be an opportunity to try out some of his new tactics.

The two of them walked up the wall and into the trees that bordered the courtyard. Naruto spared a glance at the unfortunate bunch of students who were being made to run drills in the heat outside.

"They must be a dedicated lot," he commented offhandedly. "I know I'd be cutting class the moment the temperature crossed thirty-five."

"It's not like they have a choice," she answered. "They're going to graduate in a week. This is probably their last few days of practice."

Either way, Naruto didn't envy them. Even so, he put those thoughts out of his mind and concentrated on the mission at hand. Reaching up, he quietly activated his mic with a spark of chakra, and with a quick hand movement, the two of them split to set up a basic pincer movement.

Tora came into sight a few minutes later, hiding within the bushes that marked the end of the grass. The poor animal seemed to be just as affected by the heat as the rest of them, all of its normal fight drained out of it.

Naruto didn't believe it for a second – he'd seen the cat go from calm to whirlwind in seconds, and had even been on the receiving end of one such incident himself. It was with revenge in mind that he reached into his pouch and unsealed a cylinder the size of a banana and a small lens. With a kunai, he cut off the end before setting it alight with the sunlight. The monstrous heat worked in seconds, as the edges of the oversized cigar began to smoke. Naruto barely had time to unseal his final equipment – a pair of orange goggles, and put them over his eyes before the end burst into a bloom of smoke.

It was a simple preparation of dust and a couple of ground herbs, all wrapped up in a piece of paper, but much faster and easier to make than smoke bombs. It irritated the eye and had the added effect of making the target drowsy, and he'd spent days building up his own immunity to it.

Like clockwork, Tora burst out of the underbrush, yowling and wailing, and then Hotaru was there in a flash, knocking the cat out with a quick jab of her fingers. Naruto quickly cut off the unused part of his smoke stick. There was no sense in letting the ingredients go to waste. He quickly removed his eyewear as well, mourning the loss of the beautiful orange tint to the world.

Once he was sure that the thing was burnt out and not setting anything alight (a considerable hazard given their geography), he landed smoothly on the ground, where Hotaru had procured a cage from nowhere and shut their target in.

"Mission accomplished," she said with a grin, "Though I'd appreciate if you warned me the next time."

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly, hoping that her mic was off and Kohaku hadn't heard his gaffe. He never got to find out, because a ninja appeared from the trees to land between them.

The newcomer had a dark blue skullcap headband and white hair, and was a chuunin, judging from his flak jacket. He quickly sized the two of them up, gaze lingering a moment longer on Naruto and his lips curling up slightly.

Naruto felt like rolling his eyes. Another person who disliked him for a reason nobody would tell him. For goodness sakes, had his parents been terrorists or traitors?

He turned around and made to leap back up into the trees, when –

"Yo Mizuki-sensei, you ok?" An academy student came running up to them, followed by a group of about five more. A second later, a puppy came running up to his feet, revealing that he was an Inuzuka.

"Kiba. And friends." Mizuki said, suddenly all smiles and politeness. "I thought I told all of you to wait while I checkout out what was going on? That'll be ten extra laps for you today."

"Aw shucks, sensei! It turned out to be nothing, didn't it? Just a couple of ninjas on a mission."

"Some mission," somebody piped up from the back, making the others snigger. Naruto bristled, drawing Kiba's attention. For a moment, the boy looked puzzled, before realization set in.

"Hey, you're that kid, the one who's always in –"

"That's enough," another ninja walked up to join the now sizable gathering, a scar across his nose immediately catching Naruto's eyes. "Back to your class, especially you, Masao. I know you haven't got the seventh form down completely."

The boy named Masao scowled, but slumped in defeat.

"Actually," Mizuki put in pleasantly, "this may be something of a learning opportunity for all of us. Show the kids what they can expect in a few weeks. I'm sure the two of you wouldn't mind a quick demonstration?"

Both teammates exchanged an uncertain look, before Hotaru spoke up. "Sorry," she said, holding up the cage with the unconscious Tora in it, "but we're technically still on a mission."

"That cat won't be waking up any time soon," Mizuki countered, "And tell you what, I'll even ask the mission desk to count this as another D-rank for you. Right, Iruka?"

That definitely got Naruto's attention. He threw a sharp look Hotaru's way, who seized on his intent and sighed.

"Come on, Uzumaki," she muttered, leaning in next to him, "weren't you the one who was complaining about the heat?"

"I'll treat you to ice-cream," he offered hopefully, making her reconsider.

"Actually," the other man, Iruka, said slowly, "that isn't a bad idea at all, Mizuki. Why don't one of you head back to the Tower, and the other can stay behind and complete the new mission?"

"He'll do it," Hotaru said immediately, "I don't need the cash," she muttered to Naruto, who refrained from snarking about how nice it must be to live in a clan.

"Excellent." Was it him, or was there something sinister lurking behind Mizuki's eyes? "Right this way...Uzumaki-san, was it?"

Naruto followed the teachers back to the courtyard, taking in the old sights. He'd only been in the place for a year before his teacher had all but crammed the Academy Three down his throat and forced him to graduate, and then Hatake had promptly killed every last one of his dreams.

He smiled softly at the empty swing hanging softly in one corner of the playground, but wiped it off his face as they walked back to where the class was being held. The students were milling about and drinking hungrily from their canteens, but fell back sharply into line when they saw their approaching teachers.

"Fall in, fall in," Iruka gestured sharply, "we've got a bit of a surprise for you today. This is Uzumaki Naruto-san, who is a genin in the service of the village." Naruto nodded in acknowledgement, running his eyes over the class. He couldn't help but feel a bit self-conscious, standing in front of children his own age who were his juniors, many of whom would soon outrank him in technical matters.

"Isn't he a bit young?" someone questioned from the back of the class.

Iruka looked askance at him. "I was allowed to graduate after my second year," he said, wondering if Hayabusa-sensei was still around. Not that Naruto was about to drop in for a visit, though. Unless his sensei had turned traitor and Naruto was to bring him in, he didn't want to go near ten feet of the man.

"Wow, you must be a really strong ninja then!" A blonde ninja piped up, eyeing him with a small smirk on her face. Naruto didn't know how to feel about that.

"Bullshit," the Inuzuka spoke up. "Look at his uniform. He's a grunt."

Hushed whispers swept the crowd, but Naruto kept his face perfectly straight. He'd accepted his lot in life, and wouldn't let some green punk get on his nerves.

"Quiet!" Iruka snapped. "Uzumaki-san is a ninja of the village, and deserves your respect no matter what."

"Yeah?" Kiba challenged. "I bet I could take him in a fight right now!"

"Why don't we test that?" Naruto challenged coolly, resting his hands on the hilt of his tanto. Like he'd wanted, everybody's eyes were drawn to the weapon, and Kiba suddenly looked a bit unsure.

Mizuki stepped in before things got heated. "I don't think that'll be necessary today. We wanted to give you a demonstration of what to expect in a fight once you graduate, and Uzumaki-san agreed to volunteer."

"And the two of you couldn't demonstrate yourselves?" Naruto asked, and the two teachers suddenly looked a bit shifty. His suspicions were confirmed immediately.

Back in the Shinobi Training Centre, he'd often had offers of training from his ninja superiors. Initially, he'd been delighted at finally being picked out and given the attention he was due, but then he realized that the ninjas wanted nothing more than to wail on him and brag about it later to their friends. Naruto had vowed to take every beating and get stronger for it, if only to laugh in the face of the bullies later.

Mizuki, and even Iruka, for all his polite fairness, were both cut from the same cloth.

"You are closer to them in rank," Iruka explained, and Naruto stopped himself from rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, if the two of us went all out, they wouldn't really be able to follow us," Mizuki said with a winning grin. A couple of girls in the crowd sighed like lovestruck puppies.

_You wouldn't be Academy teachers then,_ Naruto stated cruelly in his mind, but shrugged anyway. "Fine with me, as long as I get the payment. How do you want to do this?"

"One on one," Mizuki said, before Iruka could get a word in. "Full contact, no fatal strikes, obviously. The class can move back," he spread his hands out and gestured for them to do so, "and we'll take this side of the courtyard instead of just the ring."

"Alright," Naruto nodded, running his eyes over the place. There were a couple of trees to provide cover if he needed, and he was well stocked in his inventory, thanks to a recent C-rank to the Land of Rivers. "Let's do this."

"Move away, everybody," Iruka ordered, if a bit hesitantly. "Mizuki, maybe it'd be better if he sparred with one of the students, maybe? Sasuke?"

A dark-haired boy dressed in blue turned around eagerly at his name, and Naruto recognized him immediately as the famous Uchiha Sasuke. He was tall for his age, with a wiry frame, and Naruto could tell from his bearings that he was every bit as prodigious as everyone built him up to be.

Naruto disliked him immediately.

"It'll be fine, Iruka. I'll be holding back, anyway. Sasuke-kun can seek him out in his own time if he wants a spar." The two boys' eyes met, and Naruto winked. Sasuke scowled in reply and turned away.

"What crawled up his ass?" Naruto muttered to himself, as he took up his stance next to Mizuki.

He relaxed his legs, ready to spring away at a moment's notice. His hands drifted towards his tanto.

"All right," Iruka began, and then Mizuki was on him. The next thing he knew, he had been sent flying back, his brain registering a throbbing pain in his chest a moment later. The rest of his faculties caught up a moment later, and he righted himself and landed in a crouch, using a burst of chakra to flip back and execute a speedy dash backwards.

His ribs felt bruised, and he coughed several times to try and relieve the pain shooting through them.

"Cheap shot," he gasped out, massaging his ribs. The kids were laughing again, and he felt rage well up inside of him, at this familiar scene from the past.

No more.

"Ninja," Mizuki said with a smirk, as way of explanation. Naruto sneered and pulled out his goggles, fixing them over his eyes. The world turned a light shade of orange and calmed his mind somewhat, but it had another added purpose.

Mizuki charged at him like a bull, intent on hurting him as much as he could. Used to these sort of fights, Naruto dipped into tactics he'd built up long ago. At the correct moment, he twisted on his toes and opened his back up to Mizuki, who slipped a kunai into his hand. And then Naruto twisted his tanto out of its sheath with a sharp jerky movement.

The chilli powder and ground glass and dust in the scabbard burst out in a puff of smoke, and Mizuki cried out and veered away. Naruto completed his twist and charged, his eyes protected from his own attack. Going in low, he slashed at Mizuki's shins, throwing him further off balance before twirling and going for the neck. Mizuki bent backwards like a reed and then landed on his hands and kicked out at Naruto in the middle of a cartwheel, forcing the younger ninja to back away as well.

The Academy teacher was fast, Naruto would give him that. But he was fighting angry, which meant that Naruto could win this if he fought smart. He gave a cheeky grin and then proceeded to hurl his tanto at the man.

Mizuki sneered and bent away before catching the weapon neatly at the handle. His actions, however, gave Naruto the moment to quickly string together a couple of handseals and keep his chakra at the ready...

There! Their eyes met, and Naruto released the strands of his energy, performing the only genjutsu he knew. It was something he'd picked up during a raid two months ago, and proceeded to strongarm his way through until he was proficient at them, even though Kohaku had told him it would be difficult for him with his above average chakra pool and the weird density his life-energy possessed.

Naruto proved him wrong by slaving at it for days on end, even running errands for a chuunin so that he could get a few tips from her. In the end, he'd mastered _Genjutsu: Annoyance,_ and used it on his unsuspecting squad leader, who'd been annoyed and impressed in equal measure.

At skill, it was barely an E-rank, and would probably never come into much use beyond crowd control – in the hands of a ninja who was about half as creative as Naruto. It worked by building up a low keening noise in the ears, hardly noticeable at first, but would make the target irritable and antsy, and twice as prone to making mistakes. For some reason, dogs were twice as susceptible as humans.

Step one of his plan complete, Naruto quickly noted how Mizuki had buried his sword into the ground near his feet.

_Plan changed._ A simple modification of their team movement would work in this case, for the instructor had unwittingly set up the tools to his own demise.

Naruto let Mizuki regroup and calmly dodged the salvo of shuriken hurled his way, before flipping over the giant one that followed. He let Mizuki charge him, before reaching into his left pouch and pulling out his best smoke bomb. It was an extravagance to use in a fight like this, but it'd be worth it to put the idiot in his place.

Mizuki stopped and tensed, waiting for an attack, but Naruto slipped past him and out of the cloud. To add to the confusion, he dropped a couple paint bombs as he left, a holdover from his pranking days.

The class gasped as he darted towards his fallen sword, but instead of pulling it out, he dug his scabbard down next to it. Working quickly to set up his trap before Mizuki could regain his bearings, he quickly attached a scroll to the hilt of his tanto and the end of his scabbard, before using a quick Replacement Technique to escape to the trees. Mizuki burst out of the smoke and immediately focused on the Bunshin Naruto had left behind. Naruto built up his chakra and began cycling it faster, imagining pressure building up in his legs.

Mizuki fell for his trick; just as he released a wave of kunai at the bunshin, Naruto's makeshift trap exploded, sending a volley of kunai at the teacher.

They missed by a wide margin, making Mizuki laugh in derision. "That's the best you can do, you little brat?!" he challenged.

And then Mizuki's kunai went through the Bunshin, and Naruto let his chakra explode out, executing a perfect body flicker. Mizuki realized his mistake and threw up a block, but Naruto wasn't aiming for him.

He appeared behind the man, bending over backwards just as the last of his kunai flew over. Naruto was no genius, and was rather horrid at calculating time and distance on the fly. He'd made the jump on nothing but instinct and the memory of many painful practice sessions, and it'd come off beautifully. He snagged a couple as they flew past and gracefully sprung backwards, finishing with his kunai held right at Mizuki's spine.

All of this happened in the space of seconds.

The sound of his own harsh breathing filled his ears, and he realized that everybody had fallen silent. And then they burst into applause, whoops and cheers filling the air. Mizuki looked like somebody had forced him to eat a lemon, while Iruka now looked like his face was carved out of stone.

Naruto only smirked in victory, not even caring when Mizuki tried to break his fingers while making the seal of recognition. He went about gathering his weapons, breaking into a full smile when the students milled around him and crowed about how cool he was and if he could teach them the shunshin.

"Fight me." Uchiha Sasuke walked up to him, the crowd splitting as he advanced. "I want to test myself against you."

Naruto had been walking around town since morning, and had just finished a moderately taxing fight. The pain in his chest had also descended to a dull throbbing.

"No," he said, making the dark-haired boy's eyes narrow. And then he added, "Why should I?"

The Uchiha huffed, before he seemed to realize that the others were looking at him. "I'll trade you," he ground out, like the very offer was hurting him.

_Well, that's definitely a tempting offer_.

The Uchiha were known for their spectacular shurikenjutsu and fire techniques, though masters of the Sharingan often branched into every element there was. Sasuke seemed to be aware of this fact too, from the sneer marring his face.

That only made Naruto like him even less. A deal was a deal was a deal, though.

"I'll think about it," he said. "Come find me." He turned to the Academy teachers, "Don't forget to pay up at the mission desk," he reminded them. "I'll let them know to expect it."

Even if the payment didn't turn up, the look on their faces would keep him warm for quite a few cold nights to come. Before he could be besieged by any further requests, though, he strapped his tanto to his back and vanished from their sight. He thought he might have seen a pale, heavily jacketed kid approach him, but he was already finished with the seals.

He smirked as he landed on the wall behind the cover of the trees, revelling in the 'oohs' that followed his Shunshin away. Idly, he realized that he'd forgotten to remove the genjutsu on Mizuki.

Naruto shrugged to himself and then jumped away towards the Hokage Tower. It wasn't like he cared.


	4. Journey 1: Beginning

**Note: Refer to Preface for the only Author's note of this story. This will be removed with the next chapter's publishing. **

* * *

_Arc 2: Journey_

_Chapter 4: Beginning_

* * *

Days passed after Naruto's fight with Mizuki, but Sasuke never tracked the genin down. Naruto had been looking forward to matching his skills against the Uchiha, for the villagers hailed him as a genius on the level of his traitorous brother, and one of Konoha's brightest future prospects.

A part of Naruto was excited to see where he stacked up against the Uchiha, despite the fact that he'd been a certified ninja for nearly six months already. In fact, his next meeting with Sasuke, ill-fated as it was, took place on the exact date that marked six months of his induction into O-2.

The team was returning from a quick patrol mission, debating where to go for lunch to celebrate the landmark.

"I'm not paying for all of you!" Naruto protested, as he sped his way through the trees, "It'll bleed all my savings dry!"

"Harsh luck, greenie," Toru commented, blowing past him. Naruto scowled and pushed himself forward as well, even though he'd never admit to their silent competition. "You knew the rules when you came in!"

"This wasn't in the rulebook, you ass – "

The entire forest exploded into the cacophony of hundreds of birds chirping together. Mind going into overdrive, Naruto ducked his head under his arm and landed heavily on the ground, rolling to a stop and curving into a ball. Then he realized that there was no sound of beating winds, and looked out between his elbows. Toru was down a few feet away from him, but both Hotaru and Kohaku were up, the former with her bloodline active. The forest was silent again, the noise vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

Naruto had no time to feel either foolish or curious, because Kohaku was suddenly all business. With three quick hand-signals, they were off, with Hotaru at point with her Byakugan active and Naruto bringing up the rear. He reached quickly into his pouch and began unrolling his wire, stringing exploding tags into it.

_Follow-Hostile-Contain_

They arrived at a small clearing, but Naruto veered off before he could see what was happening. He tossed an end of the wire to Toru who vanished in the other direction, and together they set up a perimeter around the area. Naruto pulled his sword out and leaped to the top of a particularly tall tree, sweeping the skies around him for any threats before assessing the situation below.

To his surprise, Mizuki himself was lying on the ground, a gaping hole right above his heart. Blood was pouring out of the wound and flowing into the crimson puddle that had already formed beneath him, but Naruto was instead shocked by the corpse itself. From Mizuki's back had sprung two large, bony wings, and his entire body was covered in dark markings that looked like somebody had tattooed him all over.

There was a strange sort of heaviness hanging about the clearing, an almost magnetic presence, separate from the smell of burnt air that marked the use of a powerful lightning jutsu. Drawn as if by an inexplicable pull, Naruto softly jumped down and walked to the fallen chunin.

As he drew closer, he took in his misshapen mouth, now jagged and fanged, and the dark patch that had settled over his eyes, like two linked black eyes. Something was very, very wrong here.

"Naruto?" Kohaku asked behind him, but Naruto ignored him and fell to his knees next to the man. His gaze was immediately drawn to the yellow eyes, the pupil modified into a four pointed star.

Naruto reached out and traced the markings, which felt like sandpaper under his digits. He ignored the other ninja – ANBU – that landed around him, and examined the way in which the designs seemed to be spiralling out from one point.

"You're not qualified to examine the body," one of them interjected, but Hotaru stepped up for him.

"He's a fuuinjutsu user," she said. "He uses the old styles." There was a sharp intake of breath around him. Naruto ran his fingers up Mizuki's arm and over his chest, before coming to rest over his stomach, right where the Gate of Joy was located in the human body. He tore the smoking remnants of clothes aside and examined the familiar whirlpool at the centre, the basis of every seal he knew.

A whirpool which was slowly fading, the outer coils bleeding back into the skin rapidly.

"SCATTER!" Naruto leapt away as fast as he could, the ninja around him following. Fifty feet away, there was a massive explosion behind them, and the hairs on his back stood on end as a shockwave of energy burst through the area. Naruto turned and watched the spectacular fireball and the cloud of dark smoke that followed. With a jolt, he realized that his own tags had probably added to the conflagration.

"What – what was that?" Naruto turned, surprised, to look at the tall frame of Sasuke Uchiha kneeling next to him.

"You!" Naruto exclaimed, suddenly distracted by the appearance of an Academy student. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm a genin now!" Sasuke shot back, gesturing to the headband on his forehead.

"We'll see about that yet," another familiar voice commented, and Naruto turned to see Hatake Kakashi walking up to them. "You've been very foolish tonight, Sasuke-kun." Sasuke bristled at the jounin's familiarity, but Naruto was already moving away in search of his team.

He found them standing over Toru, who looked to have twisted his ankle getting away. Hotaru was already checking in her pack for bandages, or so Naruto presumed.

_Halt._ Naruto stood to attention as ANBU landed in their midst, one of them wearing the vaunted white cloak of Captain. His stomach sank as he realized that he'd ignored the group, wrapped up in his own examinations.

"I'm not in trouble, am I?" he blurted out. One of their number bent down with hands wreathed in green chakra to heal Toru's injury.

Like clockwork, all of their heads turned towards him in silent synchronicity, and Naruto felt a lance of apprehension.

The captain only tilted his head in reply.

_Follow, _he signed to Naruto. _Dismissed,_ he told the others. Squad O-2 exchanged anxious looks, before Kohaku gave him a quick nod. Naruto gave a little wave of his hand and leapt up next to another ANBU, who appeared to be some sort of feline, judging by his mask. Naruto had never been very good at telling what animals they were supposed to be.

His nervousness only deepened as they sped over the walls and towards the Hokage Tower. He was forced to travel in the middle as the others took up the diamond formation around him, a standard protect or capture manoeuvre. Did they think that he was the one that had triggered the explosion? Removed the evidence? He didn't fancy a tryst with Konoha's T&amp;I at all.

They landed at the base of the tower, where Kakashi was already standing with his hands on the shoulder of a sulking Uchiha Sasuke. Wordlessly, the two genin were marched into the towers and up the stairs, no doubt to face judgement from the upper echelons of the ninja forces.

Sure enough, they were led into the conference room and not the Hokage's own office. Naruto recognized the Hokage and his older team immediately, as well as the Jounin Commander, Shikaku Nara. There were several others whom he'd never seen before, including one with long blond hair who looked like his long-lost father, and a shrivelled up mummy of a man who had bandages wrapped over his entire right hand.

"Genin Uzumaki, Uchiha," the Hokage rumbled, fixing them both with a piercing gaze. "You've both had interesting nights, I'm told."

Sasuke only straightened his back and began to give off waves of hostility, but Naruto shuffled nervously on his feet.

Another ninja with twin scars on his face leaned forward, a smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth. "You have five minutes to explain yourself to the Hokage, Uchiha. Choose your words wisely."

Sasuke wasted no time in presenting his case. The little fool, apparently, had been tricked by Mizuki, who had told him that there was a secret test new genin could take to make an immediate jump to chunin. Sasuke had been told to meet him outside the village for further details, but Mizuki had shown up only to attack him, injuring his thigh and knocking him unconscious. The next thing he knew he was being healed by some fellow ninja, and then being forced to scatter at Naruto's warning.

Kakashi took up the narrative before anybody could interject, saying that he'd been scoping out the members of his prospective team – Sasuke started at that, but Naruto merely felt sorry for the poor fellow. He'd followed Sasuke when he'd suddenly taken off with his supplies filled to the brim, and come upon Mizuki attacking the genin.

At this point, the Copy-nin hesitated, eyeing his latest student-to-be not so subtly. Sasuke was led out of the room, much to his ire, and the glowering look he gave Naruto confirmed that they wouldn't be friends any time soon.

"Hokage-sama," one of the older men, a man easily five times his size with shaggy brown hair said, "Do we really need the _other_ one here?"

Naruto bristled.

"Yes, we do, actually," Kakashi spoke up. "Naruto could be the key to this whole thing."

"Is that so?" the Hokage murmured. "Very well, Kakashi, tell us what happened next."

"He activated some sort of secondary power source," Kakashi continued. In a room full of hardened killers, nobody gave any sign of reaction, but Naruto knew that the jonin had their full attention. "Began to use a different sort of chakra, heavy and malignant. Not entirely unfamiliar."

The tension in the room suddenly skyrocketed, seasoned ninja suddenly put on edge by three mere words. Naruto would have been mystified if his very teeth weren't shaking from his screaming instincts.

"I see." The Hokage commented, leaking out a bit of his killing intent. Everything immediately went back to normal, as if everybody hadn't been on the verge of leaping out of their seats seconds ago. "Do you have anything else to say, Kakashi?"

Kakashi proceeded to describe the strange transformation Mizuki had undergone, detailing everything Naruto had seen with perfect clarity.

"It's obvious, then, who he was working for?" Naruto looked curiously at the jonin who'd spoken, but he was looking at the Hokage instead.

"We'll discuss that after Genin Uzumaki's report," the Hokage said. "Now, Genin." Naruto caught himself wishing that the two of them hadn't parted so badly, "Report."

Naruto launched into his own story, corroborating Kakashi's fight and O-2's arrival. If the Hokage was impressed by their prompt response and tactics, he didn't let it show.

"Why did you feel the need to approach the body?" the mummy finally spoke, his voice old and raspy.

Naruto almost scoffed at the interruption, but withheld himself. He was sure that every ninja in the room noticed. "I recognized the markings," he said.

"You?" the hag next to Sarutobi interrupted again.

This time, Naruto didn't hide his scowl. "Yes, me. As I was saying," someone snorted in the background, but Naruto soldiered on. "They were fuinjutsu symbols. Someone probably put a seal on the chunin, which allowed him to access this chakra."

His mind was racing as he spoke. The Hokage gestured for him to be given pen and paper, and he inked down what he'd seen with steady hands.

"This was repeated over and over again on his skin," Naruto showed them an uneven crescent with sharp edges and a single dot above it. "Along with several of these, all spiralling out from a single point."

"What does it mean?"

Naruto was sure the Hokage could explain it himself, considering that he'd been the one who'd taught him, but he did it himself. "This," he indicated the crescent, "can be used to mean the first, or a beginning, or just the number one. These, on the other hand, are more complex. This – " he indicated a series of three curving lines, "is used to indicate fluids, either air or water. But since it has no dots on either side, it's air."

He linked the waves to another symbol, and then another, before drawing a smaller, sharper version of all three together that looked like a very shaky lightning bolt. "Individually they mean air, earth...and attraction? Is that right? But I don't know what they are together."

"Then maybe," the Hyuga cut in, "you should have left it to the experts instead of losing precious evidence."

Naruto would have flipped off the man if he were of lesser stature. "The seal was already breaking down," he said. "The anchor was fading when I arrived. If I hadn't noticed, ten more ninja of the village would be dead tonight."

"That's right," Kakashi added. "Naruto did well. And if my Sharingan still works properly," he took the brush and paper from Naruto and quickly painted in a few more seals, "these were the other seals on his body."

He handed them to the Hokage, who looked it over gravely. Perhaps it was because Naruto had spent several years of his childhood with the man, but he thought that the Hokage appeared rather disturbed by what he was seeing.

"It's definitely unstable," he finally rumbled, reaching into his pockets for a pipe. "Whoever made this used a four symbols seal without locking it in place. Mizuki was probably already dying from whatever chakra was sealed inside him, without even realizing it."

Naruto lost track of the conversation there, as Kakashi put his own opinion in there, and a brown-haired, senbon-chewing ninja joined in. He barely knew of four symbol sealings, and knew the concept of stabilising even numbered seals with matrices or similar seals (his special delay tags made use of that property), but all of this was beyond his understanding.

Instead, his gaze was drawn to the jonin commander, who was examining him with an unnerving intensity. Naruto met his gaze defiantly, even though he had no hope of staring the man down. Something flashed in the man's eyes. He beckoned Naruto closer.

"You're interested in sealing techniques?" he whispered to Naruto, bending over so they could converse silently in the corner.

Naruto nodded.

"You got anything to show me?"

He pulled out a couple of his sealing tags and handed them over to the man, who scrutinised them with narrowed eyes.

"This one," he pointed to his delay tag, "why is this one different?"

"It's a single seal over the standard double chakra storage," Naruto said. "When you push chakra into it, it holds it for some time before disintegrating, and then the stored chakra goes off like a normal tag. Pretty basic, really. You just don't need to stay within radius to activate it."

"Hmmm," Shikaku rubbed his beard. "Mind if I hold on to these?" he asked.

"500 ryo," Naruto immediately stated.

"You're joking, right?"

"You won't get these anywhere else. High yield, personalized fuinjutsu."

"I'll say," Shikaku agreed. "You do know what it's called, right?"

"What?" Naruto felt puzzled. Old man Hokage had simply called it a more intuitive, older style of fuinjutsu, that had fallen out of practice since it worked only for a handful of people.

"Your teacher didn't tell you?" Shikaku sounded amused. "Why –"

"Shikaku." The Hokage's voice was like an icy kunai. "That's enough. You're paid to observe and analyse, not work your jaw. Genin Uzumaki, you can consider yourself dismissed. Tell the secretary to schedule you for an evening appointment tomorrow."

Naruto swallowed his frustration down, and bowed. It wasn't a request. Shikaku did the same.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama," he said with a smile so fake even Naruto could tell it was deliberate. "I was merely doing some personal analysis. No matter." He turned to Naruto. "Look it up in the library. And do come find me when you discover your chakra nature."

He tossed Naruto a 500 ryo coin. "Save up to buy some chakra paper."

Naruto nodded at the weird advice, but made a mental note. Shikaku's voice drifted out just as he was about to shut the door behind him.

"It'll probably be wind!"

"Silence!" He shut the door to the thundering voice of the Hokage, and curious whispers behind him.

Mind racing, Naruto pondered the events of the evening as he set up a time for his meeting with the Hokage. Walking out of the Hokage Tower, he noticed that Sasuke was having his injuries rechecked by some bespectacled mook, but didn't go over.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice that he was retracing his steps to the scene of the crime.

He jumped over several charred, fallen trees, catching the remnants of his burnt chakra wire wound around some of the trunks. They would be easy enough to replace, even though his mind was now hooked on the idea of buying chakra paper. At six thousand ryo apiece, they were worth an average D-rank, but the more he considered it, the more it felt like a worthy investment. While any shinobi could master all five elements, Sarutobi himself being Konoha's most prominent example, it would be much easier to master the element he was attuned to. Naruto could only hope it was something badass, like fire or lightning. Those would be worth slaving years away to master.

He ran his eyes over the barren clearing, the smell of burnt grass still lingering in the air. The ground around Mizuki's body was absolutely black, but thankfully there were no parts lying about.

Naruto got down to his knees and ran his hands over the area, again feeling that same aura of heavy chakra. His stomach twinged.

He jerked at the uncomfortable sensation, his fingers digging into the soil. Surpisingly, it penetrated the ground easily and encountered no resistance below.

He hunched over, feeling coarse, tiny grains between his pads. He held it up to the light of the moon, blowing softly from his lips to clean his hand.

It was sand – unexpected, but not impossible this deep within Fire Country.

He brushed it off as coincidence.


End file.
